Angelo Ciotta, 81, of East Meadow, L.I., who joined the Marines when he was 17, tells you just how close he got to the enemy 62 years ago on Iwo Jima.
"I mean, sometimes you could touch with your fingers the pillboxes where the Japanese were holed up inside," he was saying.
Angelo, head of Iwo Jima Survivors of New York, spoke to me yesterday at the American Air Power Museum at Republic Airport, where veterans, their wives and kids observed Presidents Day.
To say Angelo had a terrifying job on Iwo Jima is like dismissing Babe Ruth as just another guy who played baseball.
The mission was almost suicidal. Angelo's comrades would lay down heavy fire on those fortified pillboxes so the enemy would keep their heads down while he would sprint up a hill armed with a satchel full of explosives.
"Our guys were very careful in their fire, but you could feel their bullets over your head," Angelo said.
He'd slip the satchel through a 4-foot-long, 8-inch-wide slit in the pillbox or leave it at the front door - then run like hell back down the hill.
"It was about eight to 10 seconds before the charge went off. With a little help from Jesus and good legs, you would be surprised how fast you can get 50 yards down a hill before it goes off."
Angelo was once wounded in the legs by a sniper.
But he told his fellow Marines not to come for him - he didn't want others drawn into fire. So he crawled a hundred yards back to base, bleeding all the way.
Angelo knows all about loyalty to comrades.
So what would he do to politicians he believes are trying to fracture our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan?
"I would round up those politicians, put them in a camp in Alaska, and - with lots of rules - tell our guys, 'Do what you have to do to clean them up.' "
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